Bodies of five Palestinian fighters killed by the 5 November Israeli air strike in Gaza

Israeli warplanes struck the Gaza Strip twice on Sunday, killing four Palestinian fighters in the first strike, which followed a salvo of Palestinian homemade projectiles fired into Israel.

The day saw five separate rounds of projectiles launched at Israeli targets by Palestinian military factions. Two Israelis were slightly injured and four others were treated for shock when one rocket struck a house in the town of Sderot.

Sunday's events unfolded in waves of retaliatory violence:

Dawn - Homemade projectiles were launched by the An-Nasser Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), at a western Negev Kibbutz. No injuries were reported.

9am - An Israeli air strike killed four activists east of Gaza City. Palestinian medical sources said the victims of the Israeli air strike arrived at the hospital "torn to pieces," and added that the severe damage to their bodies was accomplished by a missile fired from an Israeli reconnaissance plane.

The victims of the Israeli attack were identified as 23-year-old Talal Al-Aamudi, Muhammad Hassuna, Ahmad Al-Hilou and Basil Al-If, all in their twenties. Spokesperson of the An-Nasser Brigades Abu Ataya said the four men were on a 'jihadist mission' when they came under Israeli fire.

10am - The An-Nasser Brigades called for unified action against Israeli aggression, urging all resistance factions to revenge the deaths of the fighters and continue acting against the "Israeli atrocities."

PRC spokesperson Abu Mujahid also called on resistance factions in the Gaza Strip to act against the "Israeli crimes."

10:30 - Hamas joined the call for factional cooperation to resist Israeli actions. Party spokesperson Ismail Radwan said Hamas would not be "handcuffed" by the ceasefire, and vowed to respond to the Israeli violations. He said he held Israel responsible for the collapse of the ceasefire.

Senior Hamas leader Salah Al-Bardawil weighed in calling the early morning incident a "crime against our people," and accused Israel of "crossing all lines." He said Israel was "playing with the ceasefire" as a test of Palestinian resistance and capabilities.

1pm - Following up on their vow for revenge the An-Nasser Brigades launched a second round of shells and projectiles at Sderot and Karem Shalom crossing. No Israeli injuries were reported.

3:30pm - The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), also responded to the call for revenge against the death of the four activists, and launched two homemade projectiles at Sderot.

6:00pm - The Al-Aqsa Brigades, the armed wing of Fatah, claims responsibility for launching a projectile at the western Negev.

Later a group calling itself the Al-Mujahidin Brigades claimed responsibility for firing two projectiles at Sderot, around the same time that Israelis were reported injured in the town.

A series of consultations are scheduled for this evening in Israel to discuss reopening crossings.

Barak declared yesterday that the situation in Israeli towns bordering Gaza is "unbearable" and Israel could not allow the situation to continue.

A wide-scale military action has not been ruled out by Israeli military leaders.

Background

On 4 November Israel invaded the Gaza Strip, flagrantly violating the five month truce that had been in place. Since then Palestinian factions have resumed launching homemade projectiles at areas inside Israel. Israel has counter attacked with several air raids, killing at least 15 activists.

Israel has also sealed off the borders with the area and prevented the delivery of emergency food and fuel supplies, leaving the area dark, bakeries closed and UNRWA food aid warehouses empty.

UN agencies have warned of an impending crisis as Gazans "start to get hungry."

Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz urged Israel on Sunday to assassinate leaders in the Hamas-controlled government of the Gaza Strip in response to the launch of homemade projectiles from the Gaza Strip.

Mofaz said his country must "stop talking and launch a personal targeted killing policy, against the Hamas government." The remarks were carried by the Israeli news website Ynet.

If implemented, the assassinations would be an escalation of a present Israeli assault on Gaza which began with a truce-breaking incursion on 4 November.

On Sunday morning another Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinian fighters in Northern Gaza, bringing the death toll in Gaza to 15 since 4 November.

Two homemade rockets also landed in the vicinity of Gaza on Sunday, causing no damage. According to the Israeli military, Palestinian resistance groups have launched 170 projectiles into Israel since the aggression began. There have been no injuries reported as a result of the projectiles, and no damage to any buildings.

Mofaz, a member of the ruling center-right Kadima party, also advocated assassinations when he served as defense minister and military chief of staff.

Mofaz explained, "It turns out that Israel's policy - cutting the supply of goods, electricity and water, is failing to yield the desired results. Moreover, it appears that we are the ones acting like the ones interested in a truce, not Hamas. This approach and policy is wrong."

"We must convene immediately, form a policy and bring it to the cabinet's approval as soon as possible," Mofaz said.

Olmert: Truce 'shattered'

At a cabinet meeting earlier on Sunday outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that Israel is not afraid to use force against Gaza factions launching projectiles at Israeli targets.

Addressing other Israeli leaders at the meeting he was quoted by the Israeli press as saying "we will hurt anyone who tries to violate the truce."

"The responsibility for the shattering of the calm and the creation of a situation of prolonged and repeated violence in the south of the country is entirely on Hamas and the other terror groups in Gaza," Olmert told Israeli ministers in remarks reported by AFP.

Olmert gave no timeframe for wide-spread military action, and made no comment on the discussions on Gaza border closures that are scheduled for later on Sunday.

The Popular Resistance Committees in the Gaza Strip announced on Saturday that one of its fighters was killed and another was critically injured in an Israeli airstrike.

The reported attack occured near the Hammuda gas station east of the city of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

An Israeli military spokesperson denied that Israeli forces had launched any strikes against the northern Gaza Strip. He claimed that what had happened there was internal explosion.

A spokesperson of the An-Nasser Brigades, the militant wing affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees, Abu Al-Ataya, said the two gunmen were on an exploratory mission, but not carrying projectiles. He accused Israel of targeting them and threatened to retaliate.

Palestinian factions in Gaza have not yet reached the "no return" point if they want to renew the truce with Israel, said a senior official in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Though the source called the launch of homemade projectiles into Israel and the digging of tunnels into Egypt a violation of the terms of the truce, he reiterated that a renewal is still possible.

He added, however, that "Israel will not hesitate to respond and put a stop to any terrorist plan" if the situation reaches that point.

A number of Israeli Knesset Members with the center-right Likud party and rightist opposition criticized what they call the recent "inaction" of the state. They say that Israel has not responded strongly to what it calls "Hamas attacks" which voided the trice long ago.

After invading the Gaza Strip on 4 November under the pretext of an explosive device or tunnel that needed to be destroyed near the Gaza-Israel border and the homemade rocket attacks from Palestinian factions that followed, Israel closed the border crossings into the area.

The electricity station in Gaza has run out of industrial fuel and has shut down, meaning most of Gaza has no electricity. On Thursday UNRWA announced that if food supplies were not allowed into the Gaza Strip they would cease to be able to offer emergency food aid to Palestinians. The food trucks were turned away late Thursday because of "security concerns."

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip mourned on Thursday four men who were killed in a battle with Israeli forces on Wednesday.

The funeral began at a local mosque in the town of Al-Qarara, where the men were killed. Ahmad Bahar, a member of the Palestinian Parliament and a Hamas leader, joined the prayer.

From there a somber funeral mach proceeded a local cemetery.

The mourners called for revenge the deaths of Mahmoud Siyam, Rami Freinah, Muhsen Al-Qidrah and Isma'il Abu Al-Ola, who were killed in a truce-violating Israeli incursion.

Fighters react

Separately armed Palestinian groups unleashed a barrage of homemade rockets and mortar shells at Israeli areas bordering the Gaza Strip overnight in response to Israel's killings of the four.

No one was injured by the rockets, which are likely to further strain a five-month old truce between Israel and the Hamas-controlled government in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes killed the four Hamas-affiliated fighters during an Israeli incursion in Gaza, near the border line on Wednesday.

In total, Palestinian groups claimed to have fired 12 homemade projectiles by mid afternoon on Thursday. Israeli media said that 14 projectiles and mortar shells landed in areas near Gaza since the killings of the four men on Wednesday.

Just before noon, the National Resistance Brigades, the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said it launched five homemade projectiles at Israeli military installation at Sufa, south of the city of Rafah.

Earlier, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, an armed group affiliated to Fatah, claimed responsibility for attacking the Israeli city of Ashkelon, between 10 and 15 kilometers north of the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning.

In a statement the group referred to the city by the name of the Arab city that stood until 1948 where Ashkelon is now built. The brigades announced:"We were able to create a new homemade projectile that can reach beyond Al-Majdal."

"This attack comes for the sake of the memory of late Yasser Arafat and a response to the Israeli crimes," the group added.

In a separate statement the Al-Aqsa Brigades also said they attacked the Israeli town of Sderot, which borders Gaza to the northeast.

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said they launched one projectile at Ashkelon.

The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades later claimed responsibility for firing another projectile at Sderot and a third at the Western Negev.

The brigades said that they would "treat Israel the same way they are treating Palestinians."

The An-Nasser Brigades the military wing for the Popular Resistance Committee sclaimed to have attacked Nahal Oz, west of the Strip, with three projectiles.

Israeli forces killed four Hamas-affiliated Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip near the town of Al-Qarara on Wednesday, medics on confirmed.

Witnesses said Israeli warplanes fired two missiles during fighting between the armed men and Israeli tanks who had invaded. One missile was fired at a mosque, and the other exploded near a school, where the fighters were located.

Other witnesses reported a different version of the airstrike. According this account, three missiles landed near houses belonging to two families named Aal Muhanna and An-Naja, and another landed near the Al-Islah mosque.

The four slain men were identified as Mahmoud Siyam, Rami Freinah, Muhsen Al-Qidrah and Isma'il Abu Al-Ola.

Earlier on Wednesday Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers invaded the Gaza Strip east of Al-Qarara, sparking clashes with Palestinian fighters.

Witnesses said the invading forces are approached houses approximately 300 meters away from the border line.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, confirmed that its forces clashed with the Israeli military in that area.

Israeli military sources claimed that they had thwarted an attempt by Palestinians to cross the border fence near the Kisufim crossing and plant a bomb. The military also said that three mortar shells and an explosive device were fired at Israeli forces in the area.

Israel and the ruling Hamas movement in Gaza agreed to a truce in June. The ceasefire was thrown into question last Tuesday night when Israeli forces killed six Palestinian armed men. Palestinian military organizations responded by firing dozens of homemade rockets into Israel, causing little damage.

Two Palestinian students were injured on Tuesday when Israeli forces dispersed a commemorative ceremony in the villages south of Bethlehem city commemorating the fourth anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat. .

The ceremony saw hundreds holding photos of Arafat and signs attesting that the gatherers were committed to walking in his footsteps. The ceremonial procession walked up the main road near the Efrata settlement, where Israeli soldiers dispersed the group of mourners.

Another commemoration ceremony in Tuqu south of Bethlehem also saw confrontations with Israeli forces, though no injuries were reported.

Three workers from the southern Nablus governorate were beaten with stones by Israeli soldiers on Monday.

The men were taken to hospital where medical staff confirmed that several bones had been snapped.

When speaking of the incident Palestinian sources recalled the Israeli policy of the first Intifadah. During the late 1980s Israeli soldiers were outfitted with truncheons and encouraged to break the bones of Palestinians participating in protests.

The workers were identified as 20-year-old Mohammad Qawariq from Awarta and 20-year-old Mousa Barham from Beita in addition to another man from Qabalan who asked to remain anonymous for fear that Israeli authorities would take measures against him.

According to the men a group of Israeli soldiers confiscated their identity cards as the men headed towards work in Israel early Monday morning. The men are laborers and were en route to work via the Nil'in checkpoint north of Ramallah.

An eyewitness said that the men encountered the soldiers, who "stopped them with their rifles."

"Then the Israeli soldiers asked the workers to say "we are not men" and when they refused to, they began beating them with the rifle butts," the eyewitness continued. He described one soldier picking up a large stone and turning back to the workers, and striking them with the rock repeatedly. The witness said he believed the soldier was trying specifically to break the bones of the workers.

Three were transferred to Sheikh Zaid hospital in Ramallah where they were treated for multiple bone fractures. Medical sources described their conditions as medium to serious.

Several militarized Israeli vehicles entered the northwestern area of Qalqiliya on Sunday evening under intensive shooting. The forces moved towards an area of the separation wall that had reportedly been breached west of the city.

Israeli press sources said sirens from electronic fence surrounding the separation wall had gone off in the evening, and as Israeli forces went to investigate they were fired on and responded to the attack.

The forces searched the area and took in two suspects.

Later in the evening armored military vehicles raided several neighborhoods. Local residents responded by throwing stones and glass bottles at the troops. No civilian injuries were reported.